I realise that the bubble gum thermal gum that is provided with my 9550 really sucks, so would using thermal paste improve cooling at all? If so will thermal paste conduct at all? I am planning to cover the whole core with it.

Well, yeah put a dot, but spread it out. If you're applying thermal paste to a CPU w/ an IHS, like current Intel or AMD CPU's, place a dot, but on a bare die like a GPU, spread it out evenly, because if you don't, that dot can squeeze out.

Let's put it this way- Thermal paste is thermal paste. The only difference is between the application processes. On a CPU, a tiny dot in the middle will do fine. On a GPU, spread it evenly on top of the core (but do NOT get any around it, and DEFINITELY DO NOT use metallic paste if you're not sure what you're doing).

lol, I put a tiny half-pea sized drop onto my r430 core and applied it to the heatsink. Took the heatsink off and carefully cleaned up the excess paste. Reapplied. Has been working great for a year and a half with temps under max load at 48c.

Click to expand...

That's the same thing as spreading it, since when you put the heatsink on, it spreads it, then your removed excess paste...same thing, but easier if you just spread it with a credit card or calling card or something.

I followed the steps that arctic cooling told me to do and I did the same with the CPU, i cleaned every last bit of thermal paste off (eww it had some dust in it) then I tinted the copper base of my cooler... improvement of 3 degrees celcius in cooling. Time to burn in

I followed the steps that arctic cooling told me to do and I did the same with the CPU, i cleaned every last bit of thermal paste off (eww it had some dust in it) then I tinted the copper base of my cooler... improvement of 3 degrees celcius in cooling. Time to burn in

Click to expand...

nice work!
arctic silver's website says to let it burn in for 200 hours and several thermal cycles before you should see the real performance...

nice work!
arctic silver's website says to let it burn in for 200 hours and several thermal cycles before you should see the real performance...

Click to expand...

By the way, im using some generic $3 tube so don't expect much. The stuff I used before costed me $10... geez thermal pastes are really variable. Im happy because my GPU core is more stable than ever. (the Heatsink burns my hand when I take off the 4 Screw mounted 80mm fan)

I always find that if i take about the size of a grain of rice of thermal paste and stick that on the gpu, then place the heatsink on it always has better temperature performance and contact area compared to spreading it out evenly on the gpu. Plus you have less of a risk of having air pockets.

This is freaky, after installing the thermal paste I tried to OC WITHOUT the 80mm fan installed. Stock passive heatsink. Guess what? The heatsinks is freaking burning hot (a good thing) I am getting nearly the same clock; its only off by around 35mhz... (Im talking about the core speed; crappy 4.0 ns memory!!!).

Considering that most of the heat generated is removed by the fan (usually), do you guys think its time for me to voltmod?

EDIT: By the way, this was also to burn in the thermal paste, what results would I get with high grade thermal paste from arctic silver?

TO EVERYONE WHO OWNS A 9550 FROM SAPPHIRE: Change the thermal paste, the stock bubble gum paste is hindering your card from overclocking another 30%.

Is the Die even made of silicon? It seems far too "shiny" to be. (I had to rub off the bubblegumm crap). Why do GPU manufacturers use the shittest (and the easiest to apply) type of thermal paste? Its got so much thermal resistance that it isnt funny. Some info on the thermal paste:

Balance Stars Thermal Paste: Stars-200

Thermal conductivity: >0.95W/m-k (kelvin)
Thermal Resistance <0.229*C-inch squared/W
Its a ceramic medium apparently, I was surprised it came in a syringe tube.

Is the Die even made of silicon? It seems far too "shiny" to be. (I had to rub off the bubblegumm crap). Why do GPU manufacturers use the shittest (and the easiest to apply) type of thermal paste? Its got so much thermal resistance that it isnt funny. Some info on the thermal paste:

Balance Stars Thermal Paste: Stars-200

Thermal conductivity: >0.95W/m-k (kelvin)
Thermal Resistance <0.229*C-inch squared/W
Its a ceramic medium apparently, I was surprised it came in a syringe tube.